San Francisco welcomes windy cargoes

August 18 - The Port of San Francisco recently welcomed the M/V Star Hansa, carrying wind turbine components for San Leandro, California-based Halus Power Systems.

Halus imported wind tower sections, blades, nacelles, hubs and other parts for three complete wind turbines, which were purchased from a windfarm in Germany.

Both breakbulk and containerised cargoes were offloaded using the port's gantry cranes.

"It is good to see a company like Halus providing renewable energy manufacturing jobs right here in the San Francisco Bay Area," said port director Peter Dailey.

The wind turbines will be remanufactured at Halus Power Systems' San Leandro plant near Oakland. One has already been sold to the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Ohio; another will be installed at a farm near Ellensburg, Washington.

Louis Rigaud, founder and general director of Halus, said: "Today the standard is 2-3 megawatt wind turbines at the large industrial windfarms.

"Older models are being cleared out of windfarms in Germany and Denmark to make way for the newer models, but the older models are still more than adequate for smaller-scale users such as businesses and large farms."

Halus employs a staff of ten and recently relocated to a larger San Leandro plant after outgrowing its nearby Hayward facility.

Pier 80, operated by Metro Ports, is a 70-acre (28.3 heactare) facility that includes over nine acres (3.6 hectares) of covered storage. According to the port, Pier 80 is the only marine terminal in northern California capable of handling containers, breakbulk and heavy lift cargoes.

In addition to the Halus Power Systems cargoes, the Star Hansa also discharged sheet pile and other steel products.

June 5 - A fire broke out aboard Höegh Autoliners’ ro-ro vessel Höegh Xiamen yesterday (June 4) at Blount Island, Jacksonville, USA; there are no injuries to any of the 21 crew members, who have all been evacuated from the vessel.